SheSue Experience

Native American Dancer and his Wife

I recently attended a Native American Pow Wow at Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon. A Pow Wow is the Native American people’s way of meeting together to join in dancing, singing, visiting, renewing old friendships and make new ones. This is a time to renew thought of the old ways and to preserve a rich heritage.

Though unclear, many believe that the Pow Wow originated when the Native Americans were forced onto reservations and the government made them to have dances for the public to come and see. Before each dance they were lead through the town in a parade,which is the beginning of the Grand Entry. This is the entry of all the tribes entering the room. Everyone is asked to stand as the flags are brought into the arena. There was a US flag, tribal flags, POW flag, and eagle staffs of the various tribes present. These were carried by veterans while the Native Americans carried the US flag.

Following the veterans are other important guests of the Pow Wow including tribal chiefs, Princesses, and elders. Next in line are the men dancers. The men are followed by the women dancers. Once everyone is in the arena, the song ends and a song is sung to honor the flag and the veterans. Then dancing resumed, mostly in a circular pattern. After these circular dances, inter-tribal dancing songs are sung and everyone dances to the beat of the drum.

Native American Drummers

There was an MC telling us what was going on through-out.

Pow Wow singers are very important figures in the Native American culture. In history, as various tribes gathered together, they would share their songs, often changing the songs so singers of different tribes could join. With these changes came the use of “vocables” to replace the words of the old songs. Most of the songs were sung in vocables with no words.

After a series of dances, there was a break for a community dinner. Just as there was a grand entry, so was there a grand exit in much the same manner. During the break I checked out the many vendors. Lots of beaded work, some wood carving and leather work. No bunnies, but I did find some beaded earrings and a leather bookmark.

Also during the break I managed to get a few friends to pose for a photo. Some of the costumes were quite elaborate, some not so much.

Native American Girl getting ready to Dance

Just as the dancing, some really got into it, some not. With the dancers gone, the drummers and singers took to the center of the room and beat up a good rhythm.

Time for dinner. I decided to try out some buffalo jerky. I liked it better than beef jerky. It was sweeter and not so tough. I also tried out an Indian taco. This was fry bread with traditional taco toppings. Fry bread is just what it sounds like – bread dough deep fat fried. It’ll take me a week to work that off!

If you’ve never been, I would definitely recommend checking out a Pow Wow. To see if there’s one in your area, check out Pow Wows.com.

Native American Headdresses

Waterfall with Tai Hu Rocks from China

Situated in bustling downtown Portland, Oregon you can find the serenity of the Classical Chinese Garden. Inside the walls of the garden, you will find the beautiful landscaping traditional to China connected with stone pathways. The garden is home to hundreds of species of plants each placed with a special meaning, an 8,000 square foot lake they call Lake Zither and a waterfall feature.

The rocks you see surrounding the waterfall may look man made, but in reality, they come from China. Called Tai Hu, the rocks are limestone mined from Lake Tai, a fresh-water lake near Suzhou. They are prized for their four virtues which are: the holes that allow life force to flow freely, the rough texture, their slenderness, and being top-heavy.

My Sister and I at the Tao of Tea

Along the pathways, you will encounter several pavilions where they host classes during the year. On the back side of the garden is the Tao of Tea, a small tea house where they serve a wide variety of teas and traditional Chinese snacks.

I came to celebrate the Chinese New Year. For the celebration, hand made paper lanterns hung all about. Throughout the day there was a variety of singing and dancing. They also had lantern making for children and cut out dragons you could color. I arrived just in time for story telling about the Chinese zodiac. The finale was a traditional lion dance. A drum kept beat as two-person lions danced on stage for all, then two of the lions wound their way through the audience.

This is the year of the ox. If you were born in the years 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997 or 2009, you were born under the sign of the ox and are a good listener and have strong ideas. I was born under the sign of the dog, loyal and can always keep a secret.

A visit isn’t complete without a trip to the gift shop. I found a beautiful bookmark, the dragon is yet to be colored. The red envelope was given to all who came. It held two pennies, hope they bring me luck! And a bunny. Okay, so officially I was born under the dog sign, but who can resist the bunny!

There’s still time to get to the Chinese gardens for the celebration. It lasts until next weekend. On the final day, February 8th, they will set floating lanterns adrift. Don’t miss this beautiful holiday.

Temple at the Chinese Classical Garden

Chinese Dancing Lion

Chinese New Year Lion Dance

Chinese Celebration Drum

Chinese Gift Store Goodies

Tomorrow is the big day.  Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.  A couple of random thoughts I have come across about Thanksgiving that I wanted to pass along.

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.
by W.J. Cameron

With that said, I came across this photo which is entitled ” Thanksgiving is many circles of love.”

And finally I couldn’t resist passing this poem along:

T’was the night of Thanksgiving,
But I just couldn’t sleep.
I tried counting backwards,
I tried counting sheep.
The leftovers beckoned,
The dark meat and white.
But I fought the temptation,
With all of my might.
Tossing and turning,
with anticipation.
The thought of a snack
became infatuation.
So I raced to the kitchen,
Flung open the door,
And gazed at the fridge,
Full of goodies galore.
I gobbled up turkey,
And buttered potatoes,
Pickles and carrots,
Beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling,
So plump and so round.
‘til all of a sudden,
I rose off the ground.
I crashed through the ceiling,
Floating into the sky,
With a mouthful of pudding,
And a handful of pie.
But I managed to yell
As I soared past the trees
Happy eating to all,
Pass the cranberries, please!!
May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious,
May your pies take the prize
And May your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off of your thighs!
by Lauren

It’s that time of year for holiday bazaars and gift shows. You wonder through rooms with colorful booths filled with a wide variety of products. The sales people are cheerful and ever so helpful. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work a booth? It looks like fun. You just stand around and talk to people and make money.

Let me tell you what it’s like to work a trade show. I’ve done many and they’re exhausting.

Weeks before the show, you begin to decide what to take with you. What will sell the best. What you can get in your car. How you’re going to display everything. What sales materials you will give out. How you’re going to collect payment. This all needs to be gathered together along with a emergency box of goodies like tape, scissors, stapler, etc.

The day of the show begins early. Hopefully you’re car or van is packed and ready to go. You make sure you have everything you need plus snacks, water and driving directions. When you arrive at the venue, they usually have an unloading zone. If not, you have to carry everything from your car. Larger venues will have hand carts you can borrow. If not, you get to carry everything.

The booth itself will consist of a table surrounded by some sort of curtain separating you from the other booths. Sometimes the table has a cloth, sometimes not. Sometimes there will be a large sign with your organization name on it, sometimes not. All this information would have been in the initial paperwork.

Depending on the products you are going to sell, you often have to assemble some sort of shelving. I used plastic shelves with removable legs. They were light weight and easy to assemble. After the shelves are assembled, you then need to set out your products in an attractive fashion. You also need to set up a sales area with promotional materials to hand out. In back of and under the table you store empty boxes, bags to give to customers, your cash box and any personal items.

And the show begins. You get to be charming and helpful for the next 10 or so hours. Lots of lookie loos. Lots of questions. After about 5 hours you are ready to crawl under the table and hide. If you’re lucky you have help so you can get away from the table and sit down somewhere.

When the show is finally over you get to pack everything back up. Take down the shelves and haul everything back out to your car. It will be one of the longest days of your life. And your feet will be killing you. Your feet and your back. Plus you will want to frown just to relax your face.

But you do meet a lot of nice people plus you get to check out your competition. I always did well at trade shows. The businesses I promoted were all online, so I could mark down my products. Everything was “on sale” at my booth.

Some tips for a successful day:

1. Don’t try to do it alone
2. Bring lots of water
   
3. Bring your own food, the typical fare is pretty dismal
4. Have everything packed up the night before
5. If you do not have help, ask a neighbor to watch your table so you can take breaks
6. Do some simple stretching throughout the day
7. Wear comfortable shoes

Is this your Thanksgiving turkey?

Thanksgiving Day is the traditional American holiday on which we give thanks for the many blessings we enjoy. It’s also the day that many women get up at the crack of dawn to spend the day preparing the feast. I remember by mother being exhausted when it was time to sit down and eat! All of this effort was  not without its rewards, as the family enjoyed the food and regaled Mom with compliments.

Fast forward to today. My mom is gone and I spend Thanksgiving with my husband’s family. We try to make it more of a pot luck type of affair. Everybody brings something, but that still leaves a lot of work for my mother-in-law.  So I went in search of ways to make the holiday easier when the time comes for me to host the big day. What I was looking for was easy Thanksgiving recipes and do-ahead recipes. At the same time, I wanted the dishes to be every bit as tasty. The goal was to give me more time to spend with my family on Thanksgiving, rather than being stuck in the kitchen with the hot oven.

Thanksgiving table

The star of the dinner table is typically the turkey. If you’re still basting that turkey ten times throughout the day, wondering why it takes six hours to cook instead of the four hours it’s supposed to, listen up. Here’s the secret. Melt a full cube of butter in a measuring cup and add whatever seasonings you enjoy. With your fingers, carefully separate the breast and thigh skin from the meat. Be careful not to split the skin. Enlist someone to help hoist the bird up, while you pour the melted butter in between skin and meat. With your hands, distribute the butter evenly so that it touches every bit of meat you can reach. Set the turkey on a rack in the roasting pan and cover with foil. You now have the best self-basting turkey ever! Don’t open the oven until it’s cooked according to the weight and time given on the package. This is guaranteed turkey perfection.

Now lets look at food that can be prepared ahead of time. By spending just an hour each day the week before  Thanksgiving, you can get way ahead of the game. So much so that, come Thanksgiving Day, all you need to do is stuff the bird and pop it in the oven. Then you get to kick back and have fun with the family.

Here are some of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes that can be prepared in advance: cranberry sauce, biscuits and rolls, pies, rice dishes and appetizers. Many actually taste better when seasonings marinate for a day or two. Biscuits, rolls and pies can be made a week in advance, as these freeze well for at least a couple of weeks. You won’t spend more than an hour for each. Prepare your cranberry sauce on Tuesday for the best flavor. Green salads or veggies take but a few minutes. You set the table on Wednesday night!

Enjoy this Thanksgiving music video by George Winston.  Watch for the bunny!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just met up with the ladies of the Legal Brief’s team for a recovery party. It seemed like I had known these ladies, especially those from van 1, for a long time. We shared food and caught up on current events. It is amazing how much you get to know one another when sharing a small space over the course of 1 ½ days.

On with the story of the relay. Our van had all walked our first legs and rested up for several hours. We had dinner and were ready for our second leg. I had developed a couple of blisters and my black toe was acting up. Black or runners toe is developed when an athletic (notice how I decided that I was an athlete) advances their fitness routine to a new level. I had gone from brisk walks and long leisurely hikes to long very brink walks. This causes a lot more pressure on the big toe. Blood pools under the nail and turns the nail black. Often, the nail comes off. Mine was still intact, but painful. But this would not stop me from walking my leg.

This time most of the walking was done in the dark. We all had headlamps on to illuminate the road in front of us. These headlamps put out a lot of light. I wasn’t feeling near as energetic this time around, maybe I was just a little tired. I was also a little nervous about walking in the dark, something I had never done before.

As you near the exchange point, all the vans are lined up waiting to get into the parking space (usually a field) to wait for their walker to make their exchange. My particular exchange point hosted a small parking space, so the vans were lined up about a half mile on the road, moving about 5 MPH. I began to panic that I would miss my exchange sitting in traffic. I finally got out of the van and began walking as I could walk faster than the van was moving. Good thing as I got to the exchange point before the van did.

My time came to walk and I was off again. As you are walking along, the vans from all the teams are traveling alongside. With all the headlights, I was seldom in the dark. But it was a lot lonelier. By this time, the walkers were a lot more spread out, so there were times when I didn’t see anybody for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. We were walking on the shoulder of Highway 30 which by this time was quite curvy. Walking on curves is hard because of how the road banks. You are constantly walking on a slant.  There is also no sightseeing to do in the dark.  It was fun to see some of the vans who had decorated with lights.  The time still seemed to go pretty fast and soon I could see vans gathering in the distance.  Seeing the lights of the exchange point was a very nice thing. I managed 11 road kills and a 13.9 minute mile. Not too bad.

We finished our 6 legs around 4 in the morning when van #2 took over. Once again, we found a nice field to lay out our air beds and managed to get a couple of hours of sleep. Then we were off to Seaside to meet up with Van #2 on the beach.

I must say that even though the exchange points were very crowded, the volunteers were pretty organized for the most part. They had a food hut at the larger exchanges where we could get a burger or pancakes in the morning. On the beach things were very organized. They had it set up so that we met our last team member as she was finishing and crossed the finish line with her. Then we were hustled down cattle chutes to get our team photo taken and were given our team participation medals.

The beach was set up with a large number of vendors tents giving out free samples of things like energy drinks, lip gloss, Frisbees, chai tea, candy, power bars, etc. They also had tents giving massages. Later in the day would be the award ceremony and in the evening a band and bar-b-que. I didn’t stay for these festivities. I was meeting my daughter who would be taking me home.

My daughter met me on the beach. We hung out for a little bit, but then took off. She wanted to go hang out at Canon Beach. What did she want to do? Walk on the beach!

This whole experience was an amazing time. Our team didn’t do that well team-wise, but individually we were all pretty happy. I had been clocking 14-15 minutes miles during practice, so I was really excited with my time. The returnees all bettered their times from previous years and the newbies were pleased as well. What amazed me most was how 6 ladies, mostly strangers, can get together in close quarters and have a fabulous time.

The Portland to Coast Relay is a fund-raiser as well, raising $290,000 for the American Cancer Society.   Are you ready for it?  You can form your own team or you can join another team.  You don’t have to be female and 50 years young, they have teams for everyone.  For more information, check out:  http://www.hoodtocoast.com/index_ptc.php?i=ptc